D'Artagnan

The protagonist in Alexandre Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers. He was also a real historical personage, whose real name was Charles de Batz-Castlemore. He took his better known name from the region of Artagnan where his mother's family had property. He was from a middle class background, one of a number of lines who had bought their way into the minor nobility in the late 16th century.

In the novel, Dumas has d'Artagnan arrive in Paris in 1625 and be a member of the Musketeers - the personal guard of Louis XIII. In reality he arrived in the city in 1640 and served Louis XIV and his own Cardinal prime minister, Mazarin. He had a distinguished career, was appointed capitaine lieutenant of the the First Company of King's Musketeers (by that stage there were two) in 1667 and later made Governor of the French city of Lille.

He died in 1673, killed by a stray bullet during the siege of Maestricht. There exists a scholarly biography, titled D'Artagnan, written by Charles Samaran and published in 1912.